History through Stories

History doesn't have to be a boring subject consisting of memorizing facts and dates. It can be taught through stories. Every one of us has an ancestor that was alive through every historical event, they may not have been at the actual event but they most likely knew about it.  If we can make history come alive kids will take it to heart. They will begin to understand that these were actual events that occurred and people lived through. They aren't just random words or names on a piece of paper. When teaching history it's best to start with the child and work your way back. Kids, especially young kids have a difficult time understanding abstract concepts without a firm base. When you start learning about them, and move to the relatives they know it is easier to understand and believe that the names on their family tree were real people and the events they lived through were real.

There are lots of resources and ways to teach HIS STORY. Here are a few.

If you'd like to hear more about my journey with family history you can go here.

Grammar Monster

English is such a confusing language.  Have you ever wondered when it should be an apostrophe before the s or after, or when to use a colon, or semi colon. When to use fewer or less. I just stumbled upon a great site that teaches and tests you on your grammar skills. It's  called Grammar-Monster.com. I love that they work on a little bit of everything grammar related. 

Virtual Field Trip

Ever wanted to take your kids some place far away but couldn't afford the plane tickets. How about a trip to Ellis Island? To the White House? Try looking for a virtual tour. Virtual tours are becoming more popular and easier to find on-line. What a GREAT way to help your kids see places you can't fly them too to experience first hand. I have used the White House Virtual Tour and have used it in my classroom before. The kids really relate to it a lot more than pictures in a book. The Virtual Field Trip to Ellis Island is brand new!

Sqool Tube

Tonight at the dinner table my so was telling us about bats and how they find bugs by making a noise. We said that was a really neat thing. My husband then asked if he wanted to learn something else about bats. My son said yes. My husband then told him that bat's can't see. This started an argument between my son and husband. In an effort to settle the argument I wanted to find the Magic School episode on Bats, with no luck. Netflix doesn't have them. The only place I have seen them is on Youtube. I did however stumble upon this really neat site that offers videos on just about any subject.

Compass and map skills

In my son's Halloween bucket he got a toy compass. He was trying to play with it and asked my husband how it worked. He said he would teach him how to use a real compass. This just reminded me of how important map skills are and how few of us use and teach these to our children. We all own a GPS system and get around that way. I know if I had to find an address without a GPS or step by step directions from the internet I would get horribly lost.

Icivic.org

This is a neat website, Icivic.org, for grades 5-12. It teaches them how to be involved in their community and different issues that pertain to that age group. They are also doing a contest for the class that earns the most points and from what I see anyone can sign up.

Khan Academy

I finally heard about a great site to help high school students with math. It's called Khan Academy. I haven't seen anything like this yet but wow. It's a site full of videos and practice lessons to help everyone understand math. They have a library of offer 2,000 videos on a variety of topics. The ones I watched were short but very helpful. This is a wonderful resource for parents helping older children with higher level math. It's also a great place for students to go when they just can't remember what the teacher said or how to do the homework.